The Empire of Russia eBook

“Just as I was about to fold up this letter,
I received yours of the 10th of July, in which you
inform me of the adventure that happened to my ’Instruction’[22]
in France. I knew that anecdote, and even the
appendix to it, in consequence of the order of the
Duke of Choiseul. I own that I laughed on reading
it in the newspapers, and I found that I was amply
revenged.”

[Footnote 22: Her majesty’s instruction
for a code of laws.]

CHAPTER XXVI.

REIGN OF CATHARINE II.

From 1774 to 1781.

Peace with Turkey.—­Court of Catharine II.—­Her
Personal Appearance and Habits.—­Conspiracy
and Rebellion.—­Defeat of the Rebels.—­Magnanimity
of Catharine II.—­Ambition of the Empress.—­Court
Favorite.—­Division of Russia into Provinces.—­Internal
Improvements.—­New Partition of Poland.—­Death
of the Wife of Paul.—­Second Marriage of
the Grand Duke.—­Splendor of the Russian
Court.—­Russia and Austria Secretly Combine
to Drive the Turks out of Europe.—­The Emperor
Joseph II.

In 1774 peace was concluded with Turkey, on terms
which added greatly to the renown and grandeur of
Russia. By this treaty the Crimea was severed
from the Ottoman Porte, and declared to be independent.
Russia obtained the free navigation of the Black Sea,
the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Immense tracts
of land, lying on the Euxine, were ceded to Russia,
and the Grand Seignior also paid Catharine a large
sum of money to defray the expenses of the war.
No language can describe the exultation which this
treaty created in St. Petersburg. Eight days
were devoted, by order of the empress, to feasts and
rejoicings. The doors of the prisons were thrown
open, and even the Siberian exiles were permitted
to return.

The court of Catharine II. at this period was the
most brilliant in Europe. In no other court was
more attention paid to the most polished and agreeable
manners. The expenditure on her court establishment
amounted to nearly four millions of dollars a year.
In personal appearance the empress was endowed with
the attractions both of beauty and of queenly dignity.
A cotemporary writer thus describes her:

“She is of that stature which is necessarily
requisite to perfect elegance of form in a lady.
She has fine large blue eyes, with eyebrows and hair
of a brownish color. Her mouth is well-proportioned,
chin round, with a forehead regular and open.
Her hands and arms are round and white, and her figure
plump. Her bosom is full, her neck high, and
she carries her head with peculiar grace.

“The empress never wears rich clothes except
on solemn festivals, when her head and corset are
entirely set with brilliants, and she wears a crown
of diamonds and precious stones. Her gait is majestic;
and, in the whole of her form and manner there is
something so dignified and noble, that if she were
to be seen without ornament or any outward marks of
distinction, among a great number of ladies of rank,
she would be immediately esteemed the chief.
She seems born to command, though in her character
there is more of liveliness than of gravity.
She is courteous, gentle, benevolent and outwardly
devout.”